Postgame: Gonzaga

Deshaun Thomas, who scored 13 points in a row en route to 31 in Ohio State's win over Loyola (Md.), got hot again late in the first half today and scored 10 straight points, helping the Buckeyes rally from a seven-point deficit to a two-point halftime lead.

Lost in his barrage was the play on defense of freshmen Amir Williams and Shannon Scott off the bench. Scott checked in with 7:05 to play and had a steal on Gonzaga's third possession after he entered. Williams came in with four minutes left and had a blocked shot and forced a turnover when his picture-perfect post defense gave his teammates time to dig down on backup center Sam Dower for force him to cough up the ball.

Aaron Craft said, "It helps a lot with (their) confidence . . . and that's comforting for everyone else," Aaron Craft said. "If we need that in the future, we have confidence they're going to go in and do what they did tonight."

Scott played 11 minutes in tandem with Craft, who went all 40.

"Shannon had great control and did a nice job of defending," Matta said. "That gave us the ability to match point guards. They had two point guards (Kevin Pangos and David Stockton). We had two point guards.

"Just a great, great job. Getting those guys this type of experience is huge for us and huge for them."

- Ohio State prepared to face some zone defense against Loyola on Thursday night, but with only a day to prepare for Gonzaga, the Buckeyes didn't spend much if any time on it.

"I think they had, by our calculation, played 6 percent zone all season," Matta said. "The chances were that we weren't going to see it. I actually said to (assistant coach Chris Jent), 'Do we need to put a clip for zone?' He said, 'No, they won't play zone.'

"Fortunately, we talked about it. We put it on the board before the game, this is what we're going to run when they go to it. Our guys weren't in shock."

But the Buckeyes were set back on their heels for a while after Gonzaga switched to a zone defense after falling behind 52-42 with 14:22 remaining. They scored 12 points in the next 12 minutes while the Bulldogs rallied to tie the game.

Gonzaga coach Mark Few said he knew he was going to play some zone in the game.

"On short preparation, you had a day to get ready for these guys. Sometimes playing zone helps in that regard," he said.

"The game was going all right in the first half. We led for most of the first half. We were directing the shots that we wanted. They were mostly perimeter jump shots. They were hitting 'em. So I was a little bit hesitant to go to it then.

"Then, when they jumped us in the second half, we decided to go to it and it worked great. The guys did a great job in it. We didn't guard their non-scorers, even though they're pretty good shooters. For the most part, we rebounded out of it well, which is a huge concern when you play zone against these guys."

Unfortunately for Gonzaga, the zone also took away from the attention the Bulldogs could pay to Jared Sullinger, Few said, "because you're mixing up your coverages in there. So he was able to get loose a little bit there" in the closing minutes.

- Ohio State attempted a season-high 24 three-point field goals and made nine, one off its season high. Nearly half of the Buckeyes' field goal attempts were threes. Coming into the game, threes made up 26 percent of their total attempts. Sullinger had nine field goal attempts, his fewest in eight games.

"They have a lot of weapons," Few said. "We picked our poison, wanted (to make them have) to hit some jump shots, cover down on the bigs. They did a great job of stepping out and hitting 'em."

One of those Few challenged was Aaron Craft.

"We just decided that he needed to score, and we were going to dedicate some of our attention to some other people who had been kind of proven scorers," he said.

"So, therefore, that allowed him to kind of get the corner a couple times (on ball screens) because we weren't showing quite as hard because we were worried about Thomas and/or Sullinger."

Craft said it was nothing he hadn't seen before.

"A lot of teams have done that," he said. "What Jared is capable of, what Deshaun is capable of, a lot of teams try to focus on those guys. That just leaves Will (Buford), Lenzelle (Smith Jr.) and myself to be open to be aggressive.

"Tonight, there were open lanes. I found some. Did a good job of getting in and letting my teammates make plays, as well.

- Craft's three steals gave him a school-record 88 for the season, one more than Mike Conley Jr. had in 2006-07.

Craft limited Gonzaga's standout freshman point guard, Kevin Pangos, to 10 points and one assist. Pangos made only three of 13 shots from the field. "He's the best defender in college. There's nobody better than him in college basketball," Matta said. "He's special."
- Matta said before the game that a key would be defending Gonzaga's transition game. Final statistics credited the Bulldogs with two fast-break points.

"One of the biggest keys in the game was taking away their transition offense," Matta said. "I thought we did a pretty decent job with that."

- Ohio State is in the Sweet 16 for the third straight season and the fourth time in Matta's eight seasons as coach.